About Doug Beavers

2018GRAMMY® Nominee Doug Beavers has been hailed by critics and fellow musicians as a leading trombonist of his generation and “an arranger of the first-class” (Harvey Siders, JazzTimes). After moving to New York and receiving his Master’s Degree in Composition from the Manhattan School of Music in 2002, he was catapulted to international significance when he was discovered by NEA Jazz Master Eddie Palmieri to transcribe and arrange the complete repertoire from his historic La Perfecta group of the 1960s. He won a Grammy® Award with Palmieri for Listen Here in 2006, an album which featured such jazz leaders as Michael Brecker, Nicholas Payton, Christian McBride, and John Scofield.

Doug Beavers has since went on to perform, arrange and record for Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Willie Colon, Mingus Big Band, Ruben Blades, Típica ’73, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Paul Simon, Diego El Cigala, Christian McBride and countless others. As a leader, he’s recorded four critically acclaimed albums; his most recent release, Art of the Arrangement (Artistshare, 2017), is rapidly garnered critical acclaim, earning a 4 Star review in the November 2017 issue of Downbeat Magazine and earning a nomination for the 60th Annual Grammy® Awards.

Beavers currents leads a multi-faceted and active career touring, recording, producing and engineering for top New York City and world artists. Always a strong advocate for music education, he can be seen teaching an extensive number of annual masterclasses and workshops in Mexico and Colombia, and at his studio in New York City with the New York Jazz Workshop.

News & Updates

"Art of the Arrangement" is Nominated for the 60th Annual Grammy Awards!

Ladies and gentlemen – I'm thrilled to tell you that Art of the Arrangement has been nominated for the 60th Annual Grammy Awards. I'm stunned, elated, and in disbelief, all at the same time. Keep checking right here for news on this special life achievement for yours truly.

As always - thank you for your support folks. It means the world to me. –Doug

doug beavers launches "art of the arrangement" on artistshare® .

Acknowledging that the musical arrangement itself is a celebrated, unique, and vital art form, Art of the Arrangement will directly involve fans in the creative process of the arrangement from initial creative spark to final, recorded version. Fans participating on the platform will be able to interact in person with the the celebrated arrangers, and Beavers himself, as the project transitions from initial idea, to production, and ultimately to completed album. The album is slated to release June 30, 2017.

Arrangers currently signed on for the project are Oscar Hernandez, Jose Madera, Marty Sheller, and Ray Santos.

The effort will enlist the talents of living, historical arrangers to handcraft new works for the project. Through the lens of these new works, Beavers will forge a set of his own compositions and arrangements to round out the vision of the Art of the Arrangement.

big band and combo arrangements for "Titanes del Trombón now available at 3-2 music publishing!

March 8, 2016UPDATE: They're done! 5 Brand new arrangements from my latest release "Titanes del Trombón" are now available exclusively at 3-2 Music Publishing. The arrangements are available in big band, combo, and trombone choir formats. Check them out now!

upcoming performances

At the time of the release of Titanes del Trombón, Beavers took note of the fact that many of the great trombonists of the past were also first-rate arrangers, and that steered him toward the music that now comprises his latest release, Art of the Arrangement (ArtistShare, August 25, 2017). The new collection is an homage to the greatest Latin jazz and salsa arrangers of our time, including Gil Evans, Ray Santos, Jose Madera, Oscar Hernández, Angel Fernandez, Marty Sheller, and Gonzalo Grau. Throughout the history of Latin jazz, and jazz in general, it’s the arrangers who have shaped the music, and quite often their contributions have been overlooked, or ignored altogether. Doug Beavers sets out to change that fact on the ambitious, Art of the Arrangement.

When Grammy® Award-winner Doug Beavers decided to honor his fellow trombone greats of the jazz and Latin idioms on his new full-length studio release, Titanes del Trombón-- a fan-funded recording on Artistshare®that will be released worldwide on June 16, 2015 -- he knew he couldn't work with just anyone: Beavers had to enlist the best-of-the-best, and the music had to be just right.

Fresh off his world tour as lead trombonist and arranger for Eddie Palmieri's La Perfecta II, Doug Beavers presents his nonet on this, his debut recording, along with special guests Dafnis Prieto and Alex Sipiagin. Featuring a veritable who's who of New York City musicians, Two Shades of Nude breaks down the current barriers in jazz with blistering new compositions and fresh takes on classics by the masters, including Herbie Hancock's "Tell Me A Bedtime Story," and "Blues on the Corner" by McCoy Tyner.

Nursery rhymes have never swung as hard as they do on this new recording from the Doug Beavers Rovira Jazz Orchestra. With dynamic arrangements, vocals by Matt Catingub and Linda Harmon, and a top-fight band of San Francisco and Los Angeles-based musicians, this recording will appeal to young and old alike. Jazz Baby! was the brainchild of a Bay Area couple who wanted better music for their new baby that they too could enjoy. Composer/arranger/trombonist Doug Beavers Rovira ran with the idea, taking his band & arrangements into Skywalker Ranch with the multi-Grammy winning engineer Leslie Ann Jones, for a tight and exciting set of music. Doug is a long-time member of Eddie Palmieri's band who's also appeared with Rosemary Clooney, Giovanni Hildago and the Mingus Big Band.

Reviews for "Titanes del Trombón" (Artistshare, 2015)

Any recording featuring a bevy of trombone heavyweights playing salsa and other Afro-Caribbean and Brazilian styles is virtually guaranteed to be bold and brassy. But on Titanes del Trombón (Artistshare), ’bone man Doug Beavers adds another critical element: beauty. —Mark Holston

The Grammy Award winner Doug Beavers brings us his exquisite, new album, Titanes del Trombón, a tremendous musical production conceived several years ago, in 2010, when Mr. Beavers started planning the first ideas and melodies for this work...

Latin-jazz album sizzles with taut, hypnotic rhythms and pungent trombone exchanges. Trombonist, composer and arranger Beavers has extraordinary taste and restraint, keeping the focus on beautifully arranged section work instead of percussive power. The result is absolutely hypnotic.

Educational Programs

At core of Doug Beavers' musical concept lies the belief that one's teachings and experiences in the "real world" of music must be propagated so that advancement in the art itself is possible. Based on this belief, Doug Beavers has gained a reputation as being a music educator with a direct, concise, and intuitive delivery that excites all within attendance and encourages listening ears of all levels to focus in on the material at hand.

To this end, the following innovative programs have been developed to introduce students to musical concepts that were introduced to Doug by way of real-world musical situations, in a multitude of genres. These ideas have been translated into the common language that is used in today's musical education and will be conveyed to the student by way of masterclasses or more interactive clinics.